But yes, Adam Smith, Manning broke the law and must pay by being broken himself. And never doubt that a similar fate awaits Julian Assange if the U.S. ever gets a hold of him. Assange is likely to spend years in the intelligence hole, and then finally, when we’ve disassembled his personality sufficiently to render him unable to defend himself in court, we’ll put the shell on trial.

A.S. wants to debate the finer points of conspiracy law – believing perhaps that merely thinking about breaking the law is sufficient to break it. But here’s the real conspiracy here: Eric Holder’s Justice Department assisting in the rounding up of persons such as Julian Assange to bully and beat them for the crime of telling the truth. (And where is the claim that what they have disclosed isn’t true?) And let that be a warning to everybody!

But who’s next? The reporter who picks up a tip about corruption in Afghanistan (such as paying millions of dollars to the imposter negotiator from Al Qaeda)? Maybe it’s the reporter who breaks a story about continuing sexual abuse of female military members, based on a “classified” report, a report that is classified only to keep the truth from coming out? Or perhaps it’s a reporter who spends some time up against a wall for reporting the corruption and ineptitude of the Afghan police forces, contrary to the glowing reports we’ve been getting for years now from our military?

This list, of course, is virtually endless.

Eric Holder’s “conspiracy” is perfectly legal. But this is dangerous stuff: the chief law enforcement officer of the United States acting on behalf of the national security state. If we have any brains at all as citizens, we’ll condemn it in the strongest terms.